We have a saying “it is not settled until it is settled”.
After you’ve finally overcome the bank’s approval and document signing processes, things can still go wrong before settlement. Here are a few tips that will help make this final stretch as smooth as possible.
Settling your home is heavily reliant on your legal representative. They’re the ones who represent you in settling the matter with the vendor’s legal representative, as well as the banks.
Your legal representative should be coordinating title documents, certificates, cheque directions and more. So, our first and most important tip for settling your next home is to pick the right legal representative for you.
We often see clients choosing purely based on price, and opting for the cheapest option they can find, and like with most things, you get what you pay for. Bearing in mind that if you’re late for settlement, you are subject to penalty interest, so it all nets off anyway!
If you don’t have a suitable solicitor or conveyancer in mind, an experienced mortgage broker should be able to refer you one.
Funds to complete would cover things such as stamp duty and the balance of your deposit.
The authority means the lender can debit the funds required to complete settlement directly from your account, which is generally an account with the same lender, like an offset account, and any surplus funds just remain there too.
Having this set up saves you the hassle of transferring to your solicitor’s Trust account, or even worse, hand delivering a bank cheque a couple of days before settlement.
Our final tip is to book the key handover with the agent on the same day as settlement, as soon as it’s booked in. BUT book your removalists or large white goods deliveries on a later day.
This will ensure there is no delay in getting the keys as soon as possible, AND you mitigate the very expensive and stressful exercise of rescheduling bulky deliveries. It’s possible even after settlement is booked, that due to forces outside of your control, for example, relating to the vendor, that the settlement is delayed.
For more tips on navigating the home buying process, download our eBook “Your Guide to Buying Your Next Home” here.
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